


Give Me Love Like Her

by whiteblankpage



Category: Faking It (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, F/M, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-19
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-10-08 00:20:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10373421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteblankpage/pseuds/whiteblankpage
Summary: Karma's name appears one day, tender and new, on the delicate skin on the arch of Amy's foot somewhere between Shane Harvey's disaster of a party and that kiss in the auditorium. It's stark, bold and black against the pink of her skin. A perfect copy of Karma's looping signature.





	

**Author's Note:**

> prompt from keylimequeen: I have this AU idea bubbling around my brain. I really want a soulmate fic where Amy starts thinking about Karma in /that way/ because of some weird societal benchmark or something. Maybe Karma hasn’t gotten her marker or maybe hers has Liam’s name. 
> 
> Set during s1 but without Amy and Liam sleeping together because that shit was bananas.

Karma's name appears one day, tender and new, on the delicate skin on the arch of Amy's foot somewhere between Shane Harvey's disaster of a party and that kiss in the auditorium. It's stark, bold and black against the pink of her skin. A perfect copy of Karma's looping signature.

Amy rubs her mother's scented hand lotion over the mark and feels like she tripped into another world.

The marks come and go as they please- Amy knows thousands of people live perfectly content lives as the unmarked while some, like her mother, lose their marks when they lose their match.

Amy steels herself and hunts down a pair of soft cotton socks. The appearance of her mark, of any mark at all, changes nothing. She's been planning her life with Karma since they were children, since they hooked pinkies and promised.

To Amy, the idea that they belong together isn't new.

\---

 

There are hundreds of movies in the 'Soul Match' category on Netflix. An entire genre at the bookstore. Amy comes home to her mother crying into a soggy bundle of tissues after the latest episode of “Written On My Soul” and hides in her bedroom until dinner.

No one likes to talk about the matches that never work out- the girls at school dream of romance and boys that have to love them, and Amy thinks of the girl who doesn't.

She shakes her head, flexes her toes and firmly shuts that door in her mind. It's all too easy to mix up marked with matched if you let it overwhelm you.

Amy doesn't even like- she's never even considered that she could be-

She keeps those thought secret and sad, as Karma sings love songs to someone else.

\---

 

Life shifts sideways after that, despite Amy's best intentions.

Karma looks at Liam Booker with stars and intent and all the abandon of someone not yet marked but ever hopeful for it. Amy's never had to share Karma's overwhelming affection before now- she can't tell if this jealousy is as new as the name on arch of her foot or if it's always been waiting for a moment to strike.

It's hard to explain- to Karma and Shane and herself, why she'd play along with Karma's half-assed plans to get a child like Liam to look at her like love. Matches don't always mean matches- Shane's had a name at the base of his throat for as along as anyone can remember but the ever elusive Duke had yet to make an appearance. He makes do with bow-ties and other boys.

Amy's harder to crack- she's practical. She wouldn't deal with Lauren's low-level power plays for the superior bedroom or her mother's heavy disapproval for a momentary nothing. A lifetime with Karma has always held an appeal to Amy but it makes her hands tingle and her cheeks hot when she thinks about a lifetime of kisses like their first. A lifetime of the way Karma crawls across the blankets on the grass and kisses her warm and easy, in front of everyone.

Shane catches on before Amy can hide her building grin, pulling her into an empty classroom.

“Alright, where is it?” He crosses her arms when she doesn't comply quick enough. “Where's your mark?”

“Well that's a little intimate,” she says instead. Shane ignores her.

“It's Karma, isn't it?” He shakes his head. “Unbelievable.”

She's a little offended at his immediate disdain.“Hey, you thought we were lesbians and outted us to the entire school at your party. Why is it so hard to believe now?”

Shane jerks his head back in disbelief. “Amy, did you forget that Karma is the only one faking it in this little charade? While she's getting crowned as one part of Hester High's cutest lesbian royalty, you're actually falling in love with a straight girl.”

Amy swallows hard, heart sinking. “It can't be that hopeless- I have her mark.”

Shane grips her hand, pity in his eyes. “You think life wouldn't be that cruel?” He shakes his head. “Do yourself a favour- don't rest your hopes on someone in love with someone else.”

\---

 

Amy's handwriting is the thing of nightmares.

“Don't be dramatic,” Karma tells her, squinting down at the spill of notebooks around them. “It's...kinda legible and that's all that matters.”

Amy looks at Karma's flowing flowery dresses and glittery nail polishes and scratches at the top of her review sheet. “It's not pretty.”

It's a sudden insecurity- that Karma would hate Amy's mark just as much as she'd hate her name. She tries to mimic Karma's easy loops, but her letter turn sharply into something messy.

“You're pretty,” Karma tells her, taking the pen and writing “Amy Raudenfeld” big and bold on the curve of her thigh. “Smart too- now help me figure out why it matters that the curtains are blue or whatever.”

Amy keeps her eye on the name, but come morning it's faded into nothing but a smudged shadow.

\---

 

Shane takes her to a gay bar and it's one little disaster after the other.

People have similarities and sometimes those little things align into friendships but Amy's always disliked the idea that people can happily live in boxes. Shane thinks she'll thrive if he throws her to the wolves- Amy knows that's not the case.

Jasmine is kinder than she needs to be, pays for their coffee and laughs when Amy flushes as she apologizes for trying to kiss her.

“Get yourself sorted out and give me a call someday,” Jasmine says instead. “Coffee doesn't have to mean anything if you don't want it to.”

“I think not knowing what I want is like, ninety percent of all of my problems right now.”

“Then make a choice and go for it,” she smiles, tapping the tabletop with her finger. “Keep that number, Amy- even if it's just to talk.”

\---

 

“Do you think it'll hurt?” Karma asks, piling her hair up with one hand to touch the bump of her collarbones and the long line of her throat. “What if it pops up on my face?”

“It's not going to hurt or pop up on your face,” Amy mutters, pulling up her socks. “Wait, what are we talking about?”

Karma drops her hair with a sigh. “My mark. Do you think it'll say his whole name or just Liam?”

Amy pulls a face, focusing back on the magazine resting in her lap. “I think you're getting ahead of yourself. Stop thinking about boys and come take this quiz with me.”

Karma jumps onto the corner of the bed, hair spilling down over her shoulder as she reads the title. “Are You In Love Or Forcing It?” She scoffs. “Subtle.”

“Then prove me wrong and put your love to the test,” Amy says, handing over the pen.

If Karma notices her shaking hands, she doesn't mention it.

\---

 

Lauren, of all people, finds out about her mark after the disaster with the croquetbouche.

“This is too rich.” She's grinning but it isn't kind, pieces of pastry still stuck in the long fall of her pale hair. “So much about the comedy of errors that has been your relationship makes sense now.”

Amy keeps her eyes focused on scrubbing the honey out of her own hair, tensing when Lauren steps too close and peers up at her.

“Come on, sharing is caring, soon-to-be-sister-mine,” She crosses her arms in impatience. “How'd everyone take it? Is Shane crying into his gaudy bow-tie collection about how he'll forever be bitter and alone?”

Amy's silence is more damning than defiant.

“They don't know, do they?” For all her sharp-tongued cruelty, Lauren's voice is soft, like Amy's something easily spooked. “Not even Karma?”

“Karma can never-” She nearly bites her tongue, snapping her mouth shut before her heart can do more damage.

When Lauren moves this time, it's to put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.

Amy's just tired enough to let it stay a while.

\---

 

Karma finds out because that's the way life goes these days- there's always some little mystical asshole making inconsiderate plans against you the harder you try to make your life something it's not.

Maybe it's the speech, maybe it's the way they dance or the fact that Karma might be blind to her own worth but she's never been blind to Amy's.

“It's-,” Karma's gaze is a sad, sympathetic shine. “Is it real for you?”

Amy's too tired to pretend it's not, too scared to hide it. “I love you.”

Karma's mouth curls with unintentional cruelty at the admission, like it's the worst news she's heard in weeks. “No. You're just- confused-”

Amy shakes her head, curling away from Karma and her sad eyes. “I have your mark. How can I have-”

Karma wrings her hands, pale and guilty as she draws a shuddering breath. “I slept with Liam.”

Amy doesn't stay to hear any more.

\---

 

“I think we've ruined ourselves,” Shane says in a moment of somber contemplation.

“We didn't exactly choose it.”

“Not us,” Shane cracks open an eyelid in time to catch her doubtful look. “Okay, not only us. I mean like, society as a whole. Who even knows what these names mean? Some guys in a lab decided they meant soul mates and the world falls in love with falling in love.”

Amy's not sure she's ever met someone more cynical about love than herself but Shane comes a close second. “Well, a little more than that went into it....”

Shane sits up with a loud sigh. “Come on! Vent with me here. The whole concept sounds like some sort of romantic placebo effect. I mean, are any of us really in love or have we been conditioned to fall in love with the name on our skin instead of the person in front of us?”

It hits a little too close to the thoughts creeping around Amy's own head, the idea that she let her heart get hooked into something not real. “You're getting a little tinfoil helmet about this.”

Shane frowns tremendously at her. “Look at you! You didn't even know you liked girls before Karma's name.”

Amy surges towards him, pulling him into a tight hug when his voice goes hit and reedy. Like he might cry. “You'll find him, Shane. You will. Don't let what happened to me make you think it's always so bad.”

“It isn't fair,” Shane murmurs into her shoulder. He puts up with her hug for a little longer than Amy figured he would though. “It just isn't fair.”

\---

 

Karma comes back to Amy because she always has- even if it's not the way Amy would want it, she copes.

“I shouldn't have said, basically anything I said to you that night. I handled everything so badly- I am the worst friend and if you never want to speak to me again I will completely understand but also I really hope you do want to.”

Karma gulps down a deep breath, so earnest it aches a little. Amy gives herself a moment to be in love before she packs it up and hides it behind her heart.

“Yeah, you failed that night big time.” Karma cringes, bringing her hands up under her chin, the very picture of ashamed. “But I wasn't exactly-” It's hard to put into words, what Amy knows now. “I shouldn't have assumed you owed me something. You didn't put your name on me, you don't have to-”

Karma shuffles, the only warning Amy gets before she's staggering under an armful of red hair and concern. Her voice is muffled by the curve of Amy's shoulder. “I promise you- this doesn't change a thing between us. You're still my best friend.”

Despite the promise and the surety in Karma's voice, it hurts. Amy just hugs her tighter.

\---

 

It gets a little hairy when Karma and Liam break apart for the final time.

Karma is a mess of tears and betrayal and melodrama- Amy lets her sleep curled up on her bed, lets her cry until there's nothing left to cry about. Shane and Amy hover between their awkward broken friendships by not talking about it.

“Is it weird that I'm not surprised? That he'd cheat?” Karma asks quietly one night, sheets pulled up over her head. Amy sits on the bed, pausing in the motions of removing her socks. She's not sure either of them need the reminder on her foot right now.

“It's not a bad thing,” she says instead, reaching out to tug at the blankets. “Hoping for the best from someone. He should have given you that.”

If he couldn't, Amy thinks, he damn well should have tried.

Shane comes by when the worst is over, ice cream under one arm as he waves a white paper napkin. “Truce? I'm sorry my friend broke your friend's heart. He literally wasn't hugged enough as a child.”

Karma takes the ice cream, Amy takes the truce.

\---

 

Amy starts dating- really actually date dating- because misanthropic tendencies are only cool in movies and it's easier to pretend to be over the one girl she isn't by dating a lot of other girls.

Shane signs her up on the dating app Findr.

Amy pushes her hair up into a messy ponytail before pulling it back down and throwing it over her shoulder. Shane had insisted on new selfies but each pose looks forced or just....weird.

“While the origins of Findr had been more about connecting soul mates, most people just use it for speed dating and hook-ups,” he mutters, fingers tapping rapidly on the keys of her laptop. “You usually make a casual post showing your-”

Shane stops abruptly, leaning in until his nose almost touches the screen.

“Showing my.....?” Amy prompts, throwing a kiss at her mirror before remembering the horror of the duckface. “Shane?”

“That's my name.”

She drops the phone back on her bed with a sigh. “Yeah, that's why I was saying it.”

“No, that's my name on this guy's rib cage.”

It takes a moment for the words to sink in before Amy's across the room, check pressing against Shane's, their faces inches from the screen. “Holy crap, that's your name!”

“Would you like to say it one more time?” Shane asks, but he's grinning, excitement bubbling in the air around him. “I'm going to message him.”

Amy waves a hand over the keyboard frantically. “Wait- you're currently me.”

“I'm messaging him as you talking about me- it'll all make sense when you're crying at our wedding!”

It's hard to be cynical in the face of Shane's excited, mounting hope so Amy doesn't try to be.

\---

 

Karma cringes, reading through some of the messages on Amy's Findr wall. “No, definitely not her- she thinks feminism is “poisoning young girls”. I don't want to have to bail you out for attempted murder.”

“What about tie-dye girl? She's cute, she has good social-political views.” Amy asks, too tired to really care. She's two weeks and four dates into moving on and nothing's truly easier.

“She's Team Edward?”

“Ugh, pass.”

Amy thinks it should be weird, picking out dates with her match, with the girl whose name is a part of her. Karma skirts the topic with manic smiles and wide eyes anytime she tries to bring it up, like she's hiding from something bigger than the both of them.

“Have you always- When did you-” Karma starts and stops, closing the laptop with a snap and a sigh. “How long have you had your mark?”

Of course, the moment she's let it go, Karma finds the steel to bring it up again. “A few months. Just after the-” kiss in the auditorium, our first kiss “- before we won Homecoming.”

Karma nods like she's taking it all in, chewing on her lip and not really looking at anything beyond the edge of Amy's bed. “Can I see it?”

Suddenly, she feels shy, protective of the mark on the bottom of her foot. It's been hers for so long, she doesn't want to share it if it can't be shared in return. She shakes the feeling off with an anxious grin and shrugs when Karma looks like she regrets asking.

It's Karma's name. It doesn't have to be- It doesn't have to mean anything.

The name, the writing, are just as dark and ever-present as they've always been. Amy kind of wondered if they'd fade when the feelings did or if Karma's signature would stay as a constant reminder of what almost was.

“Did it hurt?” Karma reaches out, trailing one finger down the loops and curves of her name. Amy's toes twitch at the touch.

“No.” It's not exactly true, when Amy thinks of all the ways one name has changed everything. “It itched like crazy at first though. Now I can almost forget it's even there.”

Karma doesn't smile at her attempts of levity, doesn't look away from the name on her foot until she blinks and sniffs and Amy cannot deal with tears. Not when she's trying so hard to deal with everything else.

“I'm sorry.”

“I know.”

That's what makes everything so sad, that sorry doesn't make thinks better, doesn't make it easier for Amy to let her go. Karma sniffs hard again, sitting up straight to look her in the eye. “I've been thinking so much about how I need to do this that I haven't been considering how hard this must have been on you and that you didn't think you could come to me.”

She pauses to take Amy's hand. “I want you to always be able to come to me about anything, okay? I want to be less selfish with you and your time and your feelings. I want to be better for you.”

Amy can't help but pull her into a tight embrace. It isn't about the mark on her foot or lack of of a mark on anyone else. Amy loves Karma and Karma loves Amy. Those feelings will always be theirs alone.

\---

 

Amy still dates, because the food is free and it's nice, to slowly build up a group of girls friends who love other girls the same way she does. Amy knows she's a homebody deep down but isolation is a different kind of lonely.

Karma always waits up for her because she's best and Amy loves her so much. “How was your date?”

“Awful. Wretched. Catastrophic. She took one look at me and told me I looked like her ex before she burst into tears. All the breadsticks were soggy and she kept trying to text someone under the table.” Amy collapses down onto the bed, emotionally exhausted and more than a little heartsick.

“Those poor breadsticks- did you at least get some to-go?”

Amy scoffs. “She took them all and left me with the check. It wasn't a date- it was a charitable donation.”

Karma hums. “Think you have enough energy to come and hold my braid?”

“You and your braids,” Amy grumbles even as she's already pulling herself up off her bed. “Can we watch a really awful, trashy movie after this? Just veg out and laugh-”

It takes Amy a moment to notice it, the black lines creeping just below Karma's hairline. The sharp point of the 'A' peeks out from behind her ear like a stamp.

“I don't know what it means,” Karma says softly, eyes watching Amy tremble in the mirror. “I don't even know how long it's been there.”

“But you don't-” The love me goes unsaid since that night in her bedroom when Amy promised herself she'd never even think the word.

Karma reaches up, curls their fingers together tightly. She kisses her wrist, the back of her hand and her freaking ring finger, like she's making promises Amy can't help but hope she'll keep. “I think I do. I think I always have.”

“What's even happening right now?” She's still, holding a half-made braid and staring at her name like a brand on the back of Karma's neck. Her. Name.

“I'm sorry it's taken me this long to figure it all out,” Karma turns in her seat, reaching up to gently tug the braid out from Amy's shock-slackened fingers. “I-”

“Karm, this doesn't have to mean whatever you think it does,” Amy shakes her head, stepping back until her legs hit the edge of the bed and she drops down in stunned surprise. “You don't even like- you don't have to love me.”

Karma snaps an elastic band around the ends of the braids, letting her hair settle heavy over most of the mark on her neck. The “A” stands out like a beacon to Amy, bold and proud. “I'm not here because your name showed up on my skin. I'm not here because I think we have to do anything about any of this. I'm here because you said you loved me and it turns out, I love you too.”

“But not until you saw my name! This isn't real for you-”

“That's not fair!” Karma bites her lip, looking down at her twisting, anxious hands. “You might not believe me when I say it but you don't get to decide my feelings for me either. Can you honestly say you felt the same way today that you did six months ago? A year? Two?”

Amy keeps her denials to herself, tired of fighting something she so desperately wants to surrender to.

“Maybe you're right,” Karma says into the silence between them. “Maybe we're all just fools for thinking there's anything out there like destiny or that it would ever care enough to interfere with our lives like this, but I'd rather do this with you than without you.”

“Okay.”

Hope is sometimes the hardest thing to hope for, but Karma still kisses Amy like she's the only memory that's meant to last.

That's enough to build a start on.

\---

 


End file.
